DIVERSITY OF HABITS AMONG BIRDS. 177 
destroyer, who is either dragged from his hole at 
once, or speared by the barbed tongue of his 
powerful enemy. Next come the creepers and 
the nuthatches: they have nothing to do with 
these tribes of insects just mentioned, which are 
the peculiar game of the woodpecker: their food is 
confined to the more exposed inhabitants of the 
bark; the crevices of which they examine with the 
same assiduity, and traverse in the same tortuous 
course, as do the woodpeckers: the one taking 
what the other leaves. It is remarkable, that in 
temperate regions, like Europe, few insects are 
found on the horizontal branches of trees; and this 
seems the true reason why we have no scansorial 
birds which frequent such situations: but in tropical 
countries the case is different; and we there find 
the whole family of cuckows exploring such branches, 
and such only. Finally, the extreme ramifications, 
never visited by any of the foregoing birds, are 
assigned, —in this country at least, —to the different 
species of titmice, whose diminutive size and facility 
of clinging are so well suited for such situations. In 
this manner are the insect inhabitants of the trunk, 
the bark, and the branches, kept within due limits ; 
while those which frequent the leaves become the 
prey of other birds. The caterpillar-catchers of 
Africa, India, and New Holland, as the name 
implies, feed only upon the larger sized larve ; while, 
in this country, the whole family of warblers make 
continued havoe among all those lesser insects 
which live among foliage. Wherever, from climate 
or local situation, insects are most abundant, there 
also are the agents for subduing them proportionably 
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